President Obama to visit Atlanta Thursday

The White House is expected to announce, in the next few days, the details of his visit, including the purpose of the trip and where and when he will appear.

The President is going to travel only to two cities next week, after his State of the Union address on Tuesday night -- Asheville, NC, on Wednesday, and then Atlanta on Thursday.

So it's likely he will be highlighting some aspects of his State of the Union address.

But beyond that, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, Mike Berlon, is looking at the big picture.

Berlon said Friday that the President's appearance in Atlanta is part of a plan to help bolster the party in its quest to turn Georgia from a Red state into a Purple or Blue state in the next two election cycles.

"It's huge for us. I mean, we know that in 2014 and into 2016, Georgia's going to be in play. And this is just the beginning, I think, of a lot of visits to Georgia to help turn the state Blue..... We know the next two targeted states are North Carolina and Georgia. If you win North Carolina and Georgia in 2016, that's a combined 33 electoral votes. If that happens, there's almost no chance they'll elect a Republican nationally to the presidency in my lifetime."

Berlon said that even though President Obama did not win Georgia in 2012, "The President got 45.5 percent of the vote here with very little help from the national party. And the President's people are very smart people, they understand both issues and politics, so we're really excited to have him here. They recognize the significance of the state, and I think that now that the election is over, they're on to making sure that we win in the future."